Dear Mr. Routesetter,

Is it common for route setters to start off as volunteers? If so, how long before one is hired with compensation?

I have to admit that volunteering my time has always meant for charity, or a good cause. Spending 4 hours putting up a route, so that my local gym can then sell this product to others… it really bothers me.

I understand wanting to train new blood for route setting, and my routes are probably not the best yet, but I think that any business should compensate those who make its product.

I mean could you imagine McDonald’s telling the new employee “Well, we don’t know if you can take orders yet, so the first few weeks are on a volunteer basis.”?

Thanks in advance,
Anonymous, N. America.

While I wouldn’t put anything past McDonald’s, climbing gyms should be above this type of corporate scheming.

I agree that putting your personal effort into creating an original product for someone else to sell puts a bee in my bonnet too. But historically, climbing gyms have relied on volunteer setters to keep their walls climbable.

I’m sure this practice came from the good ol’ days of home woodies and buddies donating their time so they would have a place to climb. This mentality has carried over to the commercial and even recreational climbing gyms across the country.

But in today’s market it doesn’t make sense, nor is it ethical to ask customers to spend time making the very product they’re going to use while someone else reaps the rewards.

Nevertheless, it is common in gyms to start out as a volunteer setter and hopefully move up the ranks to become a paid setter, and maybe even one day the glorious position of Head Setter. But with so many opportunities starting to pop up for setters to get trained and certified it will become harder and harder for gyms to justify not hiring one of the new breed of “professional” setters that these certification clinics create.

Customers too will demand higher route quality and will start voting with their dollars when that quality isn’t met. (And if it was me I wouldn’t want to support such a gym that doesn’t respect me as a customer enough to provide high quality routes.)

So how long should you stick it out? First, find out if your facility has a program for training and promoting new setters. Don’t turn a wrench for these guys till you’re assured (perhaps in writing) that, sooner or later, you will be compensated.

Once that is settled and you know you aren’t busting your hump for someone else, start setting and learning and getting better. You should expect to be volunteering your time for about 6 months to a year depending on how often you set and your experience level. After that it’s time for them to pay up or shut up.

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